In internal combustion engines, in particular of motor vehicles, undesirable spontaneous ignition can occur before and/or after an intended ignition of the fuel-air mixture. In addition to spontaneous ignition following the intended ignition, the so-called knocking, stochastic pre-ignition (SPI), preceding the intended ignition in time can occur. Spontaneous ignition in terms of the present disclosure can in particular be a stochastic pre-ignition preceding an intended ignition in time. In addition or alternatively, spontaneous ignition in terms of the present disclosure can also be knocking following an intended ignition in time. In order to detect knocking, acoustic knocking sensors are generally known, which analyze the high-frequency oscillation components which are typical for the knocking and detect detonations in the cylinders. This solution is only conditionally suitable for detecting stochastic pre-ignition and is additionally susceptible to error. In addition, it requires construction effort through the knocking sensors.